


“My girl”

by Sarcasm_with_a_side_of_fries



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Caring Derek Morgan, Family, Found Family, Good Parent Spencer Reid, M/M, Parent Derek Morgan, Song fic, Spencer Reid Doesn't Work for the BAU, Team as Family, Time Skips, professor! Spencer Reid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29576142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcasm_with_a_side_of_fries/pseuds/Sarcasm_with_a_side_of_fries
Summary: Stamps in time of Derek Morgan getting to know Cory Dianna Reid.(Based on the song “my girl” by elvie shane)
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Original child character, Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & Original Child Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	“My girl”

**Author's Note:**

> Quick background/AU explanation 
> 
> Spencer Reid never joins the FBI, he’s a professor at Georgetown university. Derek Morgan is still in the BAU and the BAU members do pop up.  
> Cory is the result of a past “relationship” Spencer was in, her mother is never mentioned because she abandons Cory and Spencer right after Cory is born.  
> He meets Derek at the coffee shop they both happen to frequent. 
> 
> This is open to more, I might possibly start a series based in this universe (which I will call ‘Cory’s world’) if I think people would be interested in reading it.

**_She ain’t got my smile that don’t bother me a bit and she’s got somebody else’s eyes I’m seeing myself in._ **

The red haired, Hazel eye little girl holds tightly onto Spencer’s hand. He had explained to her (the best he could, seeing that she is only four) that he had someone he wanted her to meet. 

**_I’m holding onto every moment god knows I’ve missed a few the day we meant I knew I had some catching up to do._ **

The first time they meet Cory is a little hesitant, eyeing him with a look that reminds him so much of Spencer. He’s worried for a while that she won’t like him. 

“She’ll warm up to you.” Spencer tells him recognising the look on his face. 

He gives her a small stuffed dog and when the night ends she hugs him before she runs off to bed. 

“Told you she'd warm up to you.” Spencer remarks later that night. 

“Yeah, I guess you did.” Derek agrees, kissing Spencer temple. 

“Did you just admit that I was right?” The mischievous smile that works its way onto Spencer’s face is honestly terrifying. 

“Yes and I’m already regretting it.” 

**_She ain’t my blood, ain’t got my name but if she did I’d feel the same I wasn’t there for her first steps but I ain’t missed a moment yet and,_ **

They’ve met four times when Cory decides that Derek must have hung the stars when he lets her ride on his shoulders at the carnival, something Spencer ever so careful would never do. 

“Papa, I'm so tall!” She exclaims giggling wildly when Derek pretends to almost drop her. 

“Derek be careful-!” 

“Relax pretty boy. I’m not actually going to drop her, right Cory?” 

“Mhm! Relax papa!” They both laugh at that. 

By the end of the day Cory had been completely tuckered out and Derek had moved her down from his shoulder to his hip. 

**_That ain’t ever gonna change I could never walk away yeah she’s my baby my whole world._ **

“Cory’s asking about you.” Spencer tells Derek over lunch. “I don’t think she understands your job.” 

“You could bring her to mine tonight, Clooney’s a general giant who loves kids.” 

“Sure.” 

Cory falls in love with Clooney the moment she meets him, nicknaming him ‘cloon’ because she can’t pronounce Clooney and it’s too adorable to correct. 

“Night night cloon night night Derek.” She mumbles that night patting Derek’s chest tiredly, a familiar small stuffed dog gripped tightly in her hand. Derek hadn’t even realised she’d brought it with her. 

“She has dragged it everywhere since you left on that case two weeks ago.” Spencer murmurs with an amused smile. 

“Huh.” Derek responds with a smile on his face. 

**_She ain’t my blood but she’s my girl,_ **

**_Yeah she’s my girl._ **

He’s known Cory for seven months the first time he watches her alone for longer than an hour. Spencer was asked to give a lecture at a college in New York and her normal sitter was sick. 

The day went easily, having taken her to the park and then for ice cream before retiring for the day. If you’d told him eight months ago he’d know the lyrics to just about every Disney song very soon he’d have called you crazy but… here he is. 

Thumb in mouth Cory curls up with Derek her head against his shoulder. “Papa smile more.” She tells him and he’s confused. “You.” She says. “Him smile more.” And or doesn’t make much sense or maybe it doesn’t. “Good.” He doesn’t get the chance to question her because she drops off to sleep shortly after. 

He carries her to the the guest bedroom that isn’t much of a guest bedroom anymore considering the toys, blue blankets and child clothes that can now be seen. 

**_It hit me like a train the first time she called me dad (pops) in a three stick figure crayon picture with all of us holding hands._ **

**_Her mama (papa) said I understand if it’s too soon for this oh I didn’t let her (him) finish I took it to the kitchen and stuck it right on the fridge._ **

****

It's been almost a year when she goes to Derek’s house from school with a scribbled picture and bright smile. She places the picture next to Derek before running off down the hall in search of her stuffed dog and action figures. 

Derek picks it up and freezes for a moment staring at the page with an unreadable expression. Spencer sees him from the corner of his eye and crosses the room looking over Derek’s shoulder. 

It’s the three of them at the park, she’s standing between them holding each of their hands. That however isn’t the part that caused them to pause, it was what she’d written. They are labeled, ‘me’ , ‘papa’ , ‘pops’ the top of the page dawned with the words ‘my family’ 

“Oh.” Spencer breathes out. “Look I understand if…” Derek shakes his head standing up with a small smile, sticking the picture among the many others that now littered his fridge. 

From that day on he’s pops. 

  
  


**_She ain’t my blood, ain’t got my name but if she did I’d feel the same I wasn’t there for her first steps but I ain’t missed a moment yet and that ain’t ever gonna change I could never walk away,_ **

The first time she sees him in a hospital is heartbreaking, her eyes full up with tears. “Pops.” She calls out sobbing when her comatose pops doesn’t respond. 

“He’ll wake up.” Spencer says though he isn’t sure who he’s reassuring by that point. 

“He was hit hard but he should wake up.” David Rossi, Derek’s team member who Spencer has come to know over the past year and two months. “Always has to play hero.” Rossi adds with a head shake before leaving the two alone. 

It’s six hours later when Derek does wake up. “Spence?” He croaks out. 

“You're awake! Oh thank god. Don’t you ever think about doing anything like that ever again delete Morgan or so help me-“ 

“Move in with me. Both of you, move in with me.” 

“What?” Spencer is dumbfounded. 

“You heard me.” And Spencer almost laughs at the oddity of the situation. 

“I’ll move in with you if you promise never to leave me. Us.” He motions over to where Cory is sleeping. 

“Never gonna leave you.” Derek promises. 

When Cory wakes she ends up crawling into the hospital bed with Derek (screw protocol) and refuses to let go of his shirt until he’s discharged four days later. 

**_Yeah she’s my baby my whole world she ain’t by blood but she’s my girl._ **

The Reid’s official move in a month later, waving goodbye to their small D.C apartment with no tears shred. 

“Pops. Papa.” Cory says wiggling her way between them on the couch. 

“What are you doing up Angel?” Derek asks. 

“Dunno.” 

They laugh at the sheer honesty but don’t send her away letting her fall asleep with them. Spencer eventually carried her to bed, making sure not to forget her stuffed dog. 

**_She’s Saturday morning cartoons._ **

The sound of hysterical laughter is heard throughout the house rousing Spencer from his sleep and prompting him to pad into the living room. 

Derek is sitting on the couch half asleep, Cory sat on his lap intently watching ‘bubble guppies’ and petting Clooney. 

Spencer smiles and if he snaps a picture, no one needs to know. 

**_She’s hey can I sleep in your room?_ **

Cory learns to hate when Derek leaves for cases, sometimes going as far as throwing tantrums when he tries to say goodbye but that never changes her response to him coming home. No matter how mad she was at him for leaving. 

Derek comes home close to midnight and doesn’t expect to see Cory until morning but is mistaken as she’s sitting up on the couch in the living room when he enters the house. “I made the mistake of telling her that you were on your way home.” Spencer explains, which ques Cory in on Derek’s arrival. 

“Pops!” She turns around standing on the couch and reaching out insistently. “Your home.” 

“Hey Princess, of course I am. I always come home.” Spencer smiles fondly. 

“Can I sleep with yous?” She asks looking between Derek and Spencer innocently. 

“Of course you can Cory.” Spencer says walking over to kiss Derek. 

“Yuck!” They both laugh loudly. 

**_She’s bigger than the plans I ever had. She's making me a better man._ **

“I never thought I’d get this.” Derek tells Spencer one night. 

“Hmm?” Spencer prompts wrapping himself around Derek. 

“This.” He motions around. “You and Cory.” 

“I thought it would always just be me and Cory.” Spencer admits. “No one wants to date a single dad who’s a college professor with a past off… expect you did.” 

“You're not your past Spencer.” 

“And you're not yours.” They don’t address the true meaning of the sentence instead Derek smiles, lifting a sleeping Cory into his arms and heading down the hall. 

**_She ain’t my blood, ain’t got my name but if she did I’d feel the same I wasn’t there for her first steps but I ain’t missed a moment yet and that ain’t ever gonna change I could never walk._ **

The wedding is in June, they’d been together for two and a half years when they decided to get married. 

Cory is the flower girl, Henry the ring barrier. 

Derek’s team is there, his mother and sisters too. 

Spencer mom is there, along with a few of his professor friends. 

Hotch is Derek’s best man, his groomsmen and woman being Penelope and James. 

Reid’s best woman is JJ, his groomsmen and woman being Emily and Rossi. 

It’s a small thing really. 

There’s a party afterwards. 

“Papa lap.” 

“Cory I’m eating.” He tells her with a stern look. 

“Pops lap.” 

“I’m eating too princess.” He responds. Still not deterred she pushes Derek’s arm out of the way and climbs into his lap successfully seeing as Penelope had changed her out of her suit before dinner. (She had refused a dress and neither of her fathers saw it necessary to force her into clothes she doesn’t want.) “Alright fine.” Derek huffs although there’s no heat in his voice. 

“Pushover.” Spencer mummers into his wine glass ignoring the glare his husband shot him. “Cory, do you want your own plate of food?” Spencer asked and got his answer when she shook her head instead picking food off of their plates. 

**_Yeah she’s my baby my whole world, she ain’t my blood but she’s my girl._ **

It’s six months later when they all sit in a family court room, their friends and family sitting on the public benches behind them. 

They sign the papers in front of everyone and then the judge announces loudly, “I hereby declare Cory Reid-Morgan adopted.” 

They go out for ice cream as a large group to celebrate, Cory happily running around with Jack and Henry afterwards. 

When it’s time for everyone to leave Cory demands to be picked up by Derek who complies. She rests her head on his shoulder and quietly murmurs. “I love you.” 

“I love you too princess.” 

“To the moon and back?” 

“A million times.” Spencer comes up from behind wrapping his arms around Derek's waist and resting his chin on the shoulder not occupied by Cory’s head. 

“Love you Derek.” 

“Love you too Spencer.” 

**_Yeah she’s, she’s ny my girl. The_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Leave comments!  
> This is the first song based story I’ve ever written so let me know what you think!  
> Also let me know if you think this would make a good furthered story.


End file.
